CHENNAI: THE Madras High Court has refused to direct the Tamil Nadu government to sanction pension under the Tamil Nadu Payment of Pension to Tamil Scholars Miscellaneous Provision Act to an anti-Hindi agitator for participating in agitations to preserve Tamil language and imprisoned thrice.
To protect the avowed principle of unity in diversity, it is very much essential to protect and preserve all languages of the country as each one will have to be cherished for the rich and distinct culture it represents, Justice R Suresh Kumar observed.
The judge was dismissing a writ petition from S Chokalingam, last week. According to petitioner, inspired by Tamil language and being a resident of Tamil Nadu, he had participated in anti-Hindi agitations in and around Tirupur and Avinashi and had been imprisoned.
The State government had brought out the legislation in 1983 to grant pension to those who had participated in the anti-Hindi agitation. He applied for pension under this head in 1987 along with jail certificates. As there was no response, he moved the High Court earlier, which directed the authorities to consider his plea. The government, however, rejected his application on November 11, 2003. Hence, the present petition again.
Relying on a 2007 G.O, government advocate submitted that pension to sufferers of agitation for protecting Tamil language, had been stopped and therefore, the petitioner cannot make claim the benefit.
The judge pointed out that the action of the State government in bringing the legislation by way of the Act to give pension to the agitators for protecting the Tamil language was viewed seriously by courts several times. The same was negated and dis-approved by the court in the judgments referred to in the very GO itself. The courts had already taken the view that the government pension or extending any benefit in the name of protecting the language, would amount to encouraging the agitation against a particular language and if this trend continues, the unity and integrity of the country will be at stake and one day the country will disintegrate in the name of language, the judge added.
Though the government had brought a legislation to give benefits to those who participated in the language agitation, the said benefit had been abruptly stopped by a GO in 2007.
“Since the government has come forward to stop giving any benefit to those who participated in the agitation in the name of language by issuance of the 2007 GO and the said GO is still in force, no order can be passed by any authority including the government in contra to the same. “In view of the above, this court finds no plausible reason to accept the prayer of the petitioner”, the judge said and dismissed the petition.